


The Birth of Vergil

by Prozaco



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Sibling Incest, Translation, Twincest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:53:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26374531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prozaco/pseuds/Prozaco
Summary: Dante found himself gaining weight.
Relationships: Dante/Vergil (Devil May Cry)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 74





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [【DMC】维吉尔的诞生【VD】](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20313535) by [95_BUG](https://archiveofourown.org/users/95_BUG/pseuds/95_BUG). 



Drops of water fell from the untightened faucet, the gasps drowned out the sound of cracking. Dante sat in the bathtub naked, hair wet with sweat and clinging messily to the sides of his cheeks. He glanced at the dagger held in his hands, paused, reached for the towel hanging on the rack, and bit into it firmly. He slid his head up against the white porcelain, the blue, watery eyes staring vacantly at the light bulb surrounded by flies. Suddenly, he gnawed on the towel and stabbed the dagger into his stomach with a sharp thrust.

In retrospect, this odd incident started a month ago.

After saying goodbye to his career as a mercenary, Dante bought a dilapidated but cheap house, made it presentable in preparation for starting his own business. But before deciding on a name for the office, Dante found a problem he'd never faced before: he'd gained weight.

Thanks to his demon traits, Dante had neglected taking care of his body for years, and no amount of junk food could smoothen out his gorgeous v-cut abs, but this time, he had gained weight. Pinching his bulging belly, Dante was a little concerned. Though he had no intention of keeping a perfect shape, he didn't want to lose it that soon either, besides, he'd just bought a stylish coat and he'd have to trim off the excess fat for the sake of his new clothes.

Having made up his mind, Dante put himself on a diet. He adjusted his chaotic routine and even included a morning jog.

But none of this helped. Dante gained weight instead of losing it. Within three weeks his belly was swollen like a pregnant woman, he had to bundle up and go shopping for necessities after sunset. At the same time, Dante became more and more susceptible to hunger, he could not resist the urge to eat, as if someone was manipulating him, and by the time he regained consciousness he had swallowed an excessive amount of food.

By the fourth week, Dante stopped going out. He had no choice but to stay home, as his physical condition made it impossible for him to go out on his own. Plus, he was too ashamed to ask for help, so he had to hide. To relieve the pressure on his back, Dante spent much of the day in bed, except when he went to the bathroom or ran out of food in his reach.

Dante was staring at the ceiling, tried to empty his mind, but one by one, hand in hand, some of the most catastrophic assumptions he had deliberately ignored came out, dancing in Dante's head. Thinking about it, Dante burst into tears. He had wondered if he was pregnant, but it didn't make sense. First of all, he wasn't a woman, and secondly, he was a virgin, if he could get pregnant that way, God could be real too.

Regardless, Dante decided that he could no longer keep away from what was inside of him. He managed to get up from the bed and walk to the bathroom, where he laid in the bathtub and dissected his stomach.

Back in the present, Dante fought through the excruciating pain which was about to rob him of consciousness, reached into the cut across his lower abdomen. At the slimy touch, Dante felt a lump of flesh, he didn't dare to touch the very bottom, but he could tell it was the thing filling his stomach. Dante shut his eyes tight and screamed as he bit into the towel, gripping the lump with his fingers, and after several slips, he finally yanked it out.

Dante's stomach was flat again, the wounds and tears on his skin quickly healed by the blood of his demon part. He slumped in the tub sweating, the smell of blood stinging his nose. After a reprieve, Dante figured he should check what had been pulled out of his stomach.

It was like a bag made of meat, so bulging that you couldn't tell what exactly it was. After a moment's hesitation, and then intense curiosity, Dante slashed twice at the bag with the dagger that had been used to cut his belly. Then he pierced the membrane of flesh with the tip of the blade, slicing it apart from the bottom up. The slime from the bag, poured out as the breach was made, revealing what it was protecting.

It wasn't a baby or a complete baby for that matter. What was wrapped inside the bag were tiny, living human organs. Bones, organs, brains, they were floating in mucus and blood, as if they were a disembodied life.

He started in a daze at the sight of those things, then leaned over the edge of the tub and vomited whatever was in his stomach onto the tile outside - How did I get this in my belly and what am I supposed to do with this?

Dante panicked, climbing out of the bathtub, covered in blood, continued to be at a loss as to what to do about the tragedy he had made. A few more moments later, Dante left the bathroom and returned with a black garbage bag in his hand.

Early the following morning, Dante was awakened by a knock at the door. He rolled over twice and still the man outside the house didn't give up and called out, "Wake up Dante! It's me, Morrison!"

With extreme reluctance, Dante crawled out of bed. He had a poor night, but it was remarkable that he could still fall asleep after meeting something that weird. After tossing the bag of "garbage" out the door and cleaning himself up, Dante fell back to sleep, ended up having sporadic recurring dreams throughout the night.

Most of them faded when he woke up, but the only part he remembered was as a child, when his mother and father were still there, when Eva held him in her arms, and Sparda was flicking through a photo album. Then the legendary Dark Knight said that Dante was supposed to have an elder brother. He explains that what he initially felt from Eva's body were two demonic auras, they were disparate and distinct, but by the time Dante was born, one of them disappeared and only Dante remained. It was strange, Dante had long forgotten what Sparda had casually mentioned in conversation, but now he remembered it vividly in his dreams.

Not bothering to look deeper, Dante went downstairs and opened the door for Morrison. The broker and friend he'd known for years balled up his jacket in his arms, gave Dante a good look up and down before greeting him in a friendly manner, "Good morning Dante, haven't seen you for a month, you're a mess like a wild dog just left without a full meal in the dumpster." He said, flapped his hand at his nose.

"Thanks for asking, I have a shower every day," Dante replied dismissively as he sat down in his chair, crossing his legs over the table, "Tell me, got me a job? Or did you come to say hello to a friend on a whim?"

"A job, indeed, but check this out first," Morrison came over to the office desk and handed Dante his jacket, "I found it outside your door, poor thing, so whose daughter got knocked up by you is this?"

Dante looked at Morrison curiously, but then he realized it - How could that be? That would be too much to ask if it was true, he thought. He denied it as he unwrapped the layers of his jacket, even though it was right in front of him, Dante still found it hard to believable.

A tiny baby opened its eyes in Dante's arms, its blue eyes staring blankly in the person holding him, and suddenly cried out loudly.

It took a long time to calm the little baby down, and now he was sleeping with Dante's fingers in his mouth. It was lucky he didn't have any teeth yet, but Dante could only be glad of that, or he would have bitten his fingers off if he had sucked so hard. Dante had thought about giving the baby a bath, no need for Dante's instincts - he could tell where the baby had crept out of just by smelling him. But Morrison convinced him not to do anything rash with the newborn, so he left him alone for now.

"Okay, now you're going to tell me what's going on, aren't you?" Morrison planted himself in the couch and fanned with his hat, a crying baby was enough to toss two adults around.

Dante snorted. Partly to dispel Morrison's wild speculation, and partly because Dante wanted someone to talk to after suffering through that month - Morrison seemed fine, so he skipped some of the finer points, and told Morrison the whole story.

"So what do you think is going on?" Dante asked rhetorically as if it was a joke, "a male can give birth now?"

"I bet the ladies will love the news," Morrison said, "but from your description, it's far away from giving birth, sounds more like a fetiform teratoma."

The unfamiliar word caught Dante's attention, " Fetiform teratoma? What's that? Something to do with demons?"

"Demons? No, no, no, maybe demons can be conceived regardless of gender, but I'm afraid fetiform teratoma has nothing to do with it." Morrison said.

According to this broker's explanation, one of the two fetuses that were meant to be twins in the first place was only partially formed and was born encased inside the other fetus. As the complete fetus grew, the organs of the other fetus molding inside him would also grow, and these bits and pieces would be encased in a rubber-like bag filled with mucus. This bag will grow larger and larger and look like a tumor of the body, which is called a fetiform teratoma.

"Wow Morrison...I'm impressed," Dante exclaimed, "Where did you learn about this?"

Morrison shrugged, "Comic books."

"What?"

"Forget about that." Morrison leaned in to look at the little baby that refused to let go of Dante's finger, "Are you going to raise this baby?"

"Of course!" Dante didn't hesitate in the slightest. Although he had just thrown the little baby out as trash last night, the situation was different now, and now he was carrying a complete creature in his arms. What's more, according to Morrison, this child was not an evil curse cast on Dante by the devil, but his twin brother had failed to be born.

It was amazing, no matter how the boy had come to earth, Dante had been used to being alone for over a decade, and all of a sudden, he had family, and the sense of loneliness was immediately wiped clean from his mind.

"Let's see this, then," Morrison pulled a power of attorney out of his miserable, ravaged jacket and handed it to Dante, "to earn your brother some money for milk."

"Hah, thanks." Dante took the paper without even looking at it, and Morrison was surprised at his non-picky demeanor.

But the broker didn't say anything, and after the job was explained he picked up his jacket and left. Before stepping out of the to-be-named office, Morrison recalled one more thing: "The dry cleaning of the clothes will be deducted from your pay."

Dante sniffed, and Morrison took that as a yes.

The door was slammed, and Dante focused again on the tiny baby in his arms. He had woken up and was looking at Dante curiously with his fists crumpled. Dante had no experience in raising a child, and he had no idea what to do next, but he became optimistic as he watched his little brother, anyway, who was born to take care of children?

"Oh yes, a name, I'll have to give you a name," Dante mulled it over, He wasn't an expert on naming, but he remembered when Sparda told him about his twin brother and mentioned names for the two of them.

"Vergil..." the other name hadn't been used back then flowed gently from Dante's lips, and the little baby opened his mouth to let go of Dante's fingers, giggled. Dante grinned at him as well, "You like that name? Then it's decided!"

The legendary Devil Hunter cautiously rubbed the tip of his nose against the little baby's face, "Vergil, you'll be called Vergil, big brother."

-TBC-


	2. Chapter 2

"Did you see that?"

"Hush! He's coming down the stairs, be quiet!"

"Let me take a look."

A boy and a girl huddled on tiptoe at the old window to look in, vying for a peek at the person walking around inside. He was white-haired but appeared to be no more than six or seven, wearing a dark sweatshirt in an adult size, with the sleeves pulled up most of the way to show his hands. Appearing in the hall, he walked straight to the refrigerator and opened the freezer door.

"He must be hungry for a piece of raw meat!" The girl outside the house said.

The boy retorted to his companion, "No, he doesn't eat frozen meat, if he does, he eats fresh, bloody meat, have you forgotten Doug's cat? His mom found it in the trash with its guts out!"

"Poor Doug." Thinking of the incident, all the color drained from the girl's face, she tugged at the boy's sleeve and asked, "Are you sure he did it? He doesn't look like...what the adults say he does."

The boy didn't answer, suddenly as stiff as cement, and the girl pushed him again, still no response. She pouted as she followed the boy's gaze, and at the end of it, she was frozen as well.

The white-haired boy was watching them. He was still standing in front of the refrigerator, hand on the cabinet door, the cold air puffing out against him, but he remained unmoved, staring straight at the two peepings outside the house. With no annoyance, no fear, his ice colored eyes locked onto them, focused like a hunter stalking his prey, waiting to bared his fangs and cut their throats the moment they panicked.

He couldn't do it. Her senses told her so, she closed her eyes in an optimistic guess that it was an illusion - that she might just happen to be in the right line of sight. But when she opened her eyes to take stock of the room, the refrigerator door was still open, and the boy was gone. It wasn't like she didn't find the little boy, she saw him, then he disappeared, like a section of a complete picture had been cut out of the middle and he just vanished... out of thin air.

The next second, the white-haired boy appeared, only a single window away from them.

When Dante returned, he saw two half-grown children were running away screaming from his office.

Here we go again. The devil hunter held back a sigh, wondering why he hadn't become accustomed to such images. Lately, rumors had been circulating throughout the neighborhood, about the old dwelling with a new owner, and it was easy to build the whole story from those fragments: a human-looking demon had moved into a house that no one would give more than a passing glance at, built a vile den, and given birth to a boy in male form.

As normal as that boy looked, he was by no means normal, in just a month he had grown from a baby to old enough to gut a cat. He didn’t kill those innocent animals for pleasure, but for food, and being from Hell, he could not feed on human food, only fresh offal could satisfy him.

If Dante had been an outsider, the tale would have sounded to him astonished at the tediousness of life in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, Dante wasn't an outsider, and the humans he had barely nodded to had guessed the whole thing so well, he couldn't even imagine how his neighbors did it.

"Is this the place? Your home."

"Well? Ah yes, this is the place, it's 'cozy' isn't it?" Dante squeezed his eyes to hide the embarrassment of momentarily forgetting the person he was with.

The plainly dressed girl smiled sheepishly, her voice sweet and soft as she said, "Yes, it's very cozy."

The girl, Daisy, was Dante's employer on his last job. Well aware of her inability to pay for the commission, still Dante helped her deal with the demons that haunted her. Thinking that he'd be working for free this time, and the fee he earned last time was still enough, however, the girl was not willing to do that and offered to work for Dante to pay off his debt. Dante hesitated for a moment when Daisy made the offer, before opening his mouth to decline, he thought of Vergil.

At first, Dante didn't think caring for a child could be that hard, but he soon discovered that he was terribly wrong, splitting his time between making money and babysitting Vergil, which even a devil hunter finds exhausting. At Morrison's suggestion, Dante opted to hire a nanny to help him care for his brother, who was still non-verbal, and it cost Dante quite a bit of money, making him take on more jobs to pay the bills. It's tough, but Dante thought it's an incentive to work, yet again to his surprise, Vergil didn't grow up on schedule.

It took some fumbling in his coat pocket for Dante to find the key. He wasn't in the habit of locking the door, even if a burglar got in, he wouldn't find anything of value, but as he got rid of his isolation, it became necessary to lock the door. Dante told Daisy again as he inserted the key into the lock hole, "As I have told you before, my brother...he is no ordinary child, so let me know if he makes you feel uncomfortable."

The girl chuckled gently, the blush on her face growing, "Don't worry Mr. Dante, I've seen things scary, and I'm sure your brother is a very sweet boy, he's just a bit naughty."

Turning his back on Daisy, Dante stuck his tongue out, Vergil's problem could not be explained by the word "naughty". The first nanny that Dante had hired had disappeared without leaving a message. That day, the door was wide open, the house was a mess, and a million horrible assumptions ran through Dante's mind, furious that the person he'd paid had gone AWOL, but when he found his young elder brother, all his anxiety and anger evaporated.

"Dante, you're home late." Vergil, who looked like a child, said to the newly returned devil hunter as he sat on the couch. The scent of the strange girl caught his attention, he gave a sideways glance, but that was all, after which he ignored them both and stood up to twist the switch on the television that was facing the couch.

"It's kind of late. Are you hungry?" Dante asked as he took off his jacket, but Vergil ignored it, just kept fiddling with the buttons on the side of the television, switching back and forth between the limited number of channels.

Dante deflated and said nothing more, he passed a sort of helpless smile to Daisy beside him, the girl bowed her head coyly, not seeming to mind Vergil's indifference.

"He doesn't mean any harm," Dante said, but the words felt redundant, he didn't think Daisy could stick around to take care of Vergil for too long, and he'd never been able to figure out what was going on inside his particular elder brother's head. But what must be done had to be done, and he gave Daisy a "please" gesture, "come on, I'll show you your room."

The girl nodded and lifted her skirt to step up the creaking stairs. Dante followed her, and halfway up the stairs, he looked back downstairs, finding that the television was tuned to an unavailable channel and Vergil had sat back on the couch, engrossed in staring at those sizzling snow.

On the second floor, Dante opened the empty room next to his and Vergil's room, which was originally meant to be a guest room, and was now rarely opened, since Dante had gradually piled it into the clutter after he realized that no one else would spend the night in his office.

"Sorry, I didn't expect the company," Dante smiled at the girl with a slight apology as he fanned the dust with a hand, "I'll clean this place up later, you'll be staying in this room from now on." Briefly, though it may be, the devil hunter added inwardly.

"I'll help myself." The girl stepped into the room and looked around, turning around she said, "It's a nice room, spacious and comfortable, and there's sunlight pouring in through the windows. Give this room to your brother when he gets a little older, children always grow up so fast."

The girl's cheeks flushed, and her eyes swirled with enthusiasm and shyness, and Dante laughed and said, "Perhaps," and brushed off the girl's hint.

In Dante's memory, his mother seems to have said that one moment he was an infant, and the next he was a courageous little man. Such comments had made Dante proud, and he looked forward to growing up faster to protect his loving mother with his strong arms. Of course, this was just a boy's wish, and he realized his powerlessness when disaster struck, and his arms could not even lift the great sword his father had left behind, but only clasped his knees and trembled. But for Vergil, the law of life's progression from greenness to ripeness doesn't seem to apply.

Back to the day the first woman to look after Vergil had run away, Dante couldn't blame her for leaving a small child behind. He was sure that Vergil was asleep in his crib before he left for work, but when he returned two days later, the house looked like it had been robbed. The floor was strewn with sheets of paper, torn magazine interiors, reminder slips that Dante had never opened, and scraps of paper that could not be identified as to where they had come from. Amid the paper-cast rubble, a child of about three years old was holding a pen in his hand, tracing vigorously over those pages, and Dante noticed the child as he tried to discern it, transparent blue eyes staring at him and a childish voice in his throat, " This is my name, did I write it correctly?"

_Vergil_

Over and over again, this word was written crookedly all over those papers.

Since then, Vergil had grown at an ever-increasing rate, and clothes that had just fit yesterday were too short in the pants and sleeves the next day. A few days later, Dante had to give up on acquiring new clothes for Vergil and just have him put on his sweatshirt. Even trickier than that was the fact that the story of a special child in the office was widespread, and with all the sensational decorations, no one else would take Dante up on his offer of employment.

But there was always something lucky that happened. Dante met Daisy, who knew those rumors were still willing to help him, and with Vergil seemingly parked in his current state the last few days, Dante thought Daisy's offer might work.

"Oh right," Dante opened his purse and pulled out some notes and handed them to Daisy, "I don't know what girls need, just use the money to buy them, and come back to me if it's not enough."

The girl waved her hand, "How can I do that, you took in the homeless and didn't charge me a penny, how can I take any more money from you?"

Dante grabbed the girl's hand, rolled up the money, and shoved it into her palm, his handsome face set in a kind and gentle smile. "Don't think about it, you're already doing me a big favor by willing to live in here, it's just my humble way of thanking you."

His deep voice sounded to hold magic, silencing Daisy, stone-like and still, with only the thumping of her heartbeat and the heat of her hands as proof that she was still alive.

Dante felt a lot more lighthearted for no apparent reason after Daisy left the house. Vergil was still watching TV, but it was tuned to the proper channel, which was showing the local news.

"Are you hungry now?" Dante asked as he opened the door to the freezer compartment and found nothing missing at all, "a little hungry or very hungry?"

"Very," Vergil said.

A bag of frozen meat was taken out of the fridge by Dante, recalling whether it was beef or pork, or some other meat. Eventually, it didn't come to mind though, but that didn't matter to Dante because whatever meat it was, he would just cut it up and put it in a pot and cook it, without even seasoning it and just serve it to the starving Vergil. It wasn't that he was being perfunctory, but it seemed that Vergil hadn't adapted to human food yet, and Dante guessed that the demonic part of his blood had made him partial to raw food, and half-cooked meat was about the limit of what he would accept.

Alas, poor Doug, and his poor cat.

Dante sliced through the hard frozen meat with a demon-hunting blade, boiled water to drop the pieces in, and hummed a tune he didn't know where to hear as he fiddled with the gradually softening meat with a spoon. Vergil turned off the television, saying to his little brother. "Do you like her?"

At the tumbling sound of hot water, Dante paused. "You mean Daisy?"

"If the name of the person who just left is 'Daisy,' then I'm talking about Daisy. You let her live in."

Dante laughed, such a cute question coming from a small child, even if that small child was Vergil. He replied, "Sadly, she's not my type, and besides I'm not good enough for a nice girl like her. She's staying in because her home was destroyed by demons and she owes me for the commission, so she's going to help me take care of you."

"You don't like her, she owes you money," Vergil concluded, which sounded overly blunt to Dante, but there was nothing wrong with that, so he nodded with a snort. Now he was concentrating on the pieces of meat that were starting to turn white, trying to cook them a little more cooked than last time without Vergil noticing.

"Can I eat her?"

The red in the meat was fading, tinting the boiling water pink, but Dante didn't take out the spoon from the pot, missing the moment to turn off the heat.

"What did you say?" He asked.

"Nothing," the child under Dante's watchful eye was expressionless, "just a joke."

-TBC-


	3. Chapter 3

As night falls, the street lights come on. The deserted office at the end of 66 Slane Street next to the reopened Love Planet lights up the lamp box on the front door. A young girl stops outside the door, tilts her head up, and whispers the name: "Devil May Cry..."

Do demons ever cry? Bewildered, memories of that nightmare a year ago revive in the girl's mind. The usual dinner, the abrupt argument, and... the child-like demon.

"At least not that demon, the child who treated his brother that way would never shed a tear."

The girl bites her lower lip and shakes her head. She wouldn't let the memories knock her down, it has been a year and she has wanted to come back here every single moment to make sure the owner is still alive, until a week ago when she heard that the office had put up a sign, she knew she had to take a visit.

The door is flung open, she forces herself to lift her feet and walk inside. The office is quite different from what she remembers: back then the empty house was piled with boxes of all sizes, the ceiling fan that creaked and spun overhead seemed to be falling off at some point, and only a small corner had been tidied up for a desk and a stereo that would probably shake the whole house. And now, the entire office appears to be divided into two worlds, with a new stereo and a new drum set, a black-purple guitar resting on the most prominent spot, and posters of scantily clad women on the walls, with exaggeratedly deformed skulls pinned between the posters, and strange swords sticking out of their mouths.

Opposite the corner could be described as crazy in front of the window is a bookshelf almost as tall as a wall, along with the books placed on it, all seemingly moved straight from a library in the last century. Facing the door, still, in the place of Dante's desk, a white-haired man is holding a book presumably taken from the shelf, quietly reading in the dim light.

At the sight of the man, the girl's heart feels to remember how it should beat again, her eyes brighten, hands clutch unconsciously at her skirt. The man looks up from his book and says in a low voice, "Come back tomorrow, it's closed now."

She can't help but smile, tears welling in her eyes as she caresses one hand to her chest and breathes deeply, telling herself not to cry.

"I didn't come here to entrust you with a job." She says, "do you remember me? I am Daisy."

There is a slight ripple in the eyes of the office's owner at that name, is it spite or joy? Daisy doesn't know, the hints he gives are too faint and not enough for her to discern. Good thing he asks Daisy what she wants to drink when he gets up from behind the desk instead of kicking her out of the house.

"As long as it's not an alcoholic beverage, I have to drive back later."

The mug holding heated juice is brought to Daisy's hand, she takes a small sip, tongue-tingling. The person who hands the juice to Daisy sits on the single couch on the side and watches her in silence.

"It's been a long time, you don't seem to have changed much."

"Haven't I?" The man replies, his voice taking on a kind of roughness that Daisy isn't familiar with, "It's been a year, and that's a long time for me."

It doesn't sound like a reproach, Daisy thinks, and he has every reason to be hard on her. Daisy sets down her mug, guilt and the warmth the man brings surrounding her at the same time. Just like a year ago, when she was at her most miserable and helpless, the man in front of her shone like a light into Daisy's life to save her. He was the most beautiful presence in Daisy's plight, and when she heard him say his name, that name was burned into Daisy's heart and will never fade.

Dante, that is his name.

With a light smile, Daisy says, "You've changed your hairstyle and you're dressing a different way, all of which suits you perfectly."

Perhaps it is an illusion, but the air around Dante's side seems to distort, but when Daisy blinks, the strange sensation is gone. Without waiting for Daisy to ask a question, Dante brings the conversation back to her, "Where did you go after that day?"

Daisy ducks her head, most of the joy she has just felt drain out of her. The question is one she has to face, but she isn't as ready to answer it as she thought she was.

A year ago, it was in this very office that the change came unexpectedly. Daisy remembers the day she prepared her best stew for dinner. Dante, who had just returned from a commission, was generous in his praise of Daisy's cooking, while his brother Vergil, as always, hadn't even picked up a fork.

Dante had told Daisy on her first day in the office that Vergil was a picky eater and could only swallow half-cooked meat. As far as Daisy was concerned, such food was not acceptable for a growing child, especially since Vergil only ate one meal a day. If Daisy hadn't witnessed Dante's efforts to persuade Vergil to give up his stubbornness every day, she would have thought Dante was abusing his brother.

Learning of the situation, Daisy did her best to prepare a hearty and delicious meal for the brothers, confident that if it was appealing enough, Vergil's poor eating habits would be corrected.

Even that night, however, Vergil showed no interest in the stew on the table.

Daisy believed she must have stifled a sigh then, and Dante heard it, which was why he brought up the picky eater thing again.

"Vergil, how about just eating a little bit?"

"Why?"

"Because it's delicious, try it, and I promise you there's no better stew than this."

Such a compliment made Daisy blush quietly, but what Vergil said afterward doused her enthusiasm coldly. The child, who never saw a smile on his face, faced Dante and pointed unceremoniously at Daisy, "So what? I don't like her cooking, it makes me sick just to smell it."

Daisy stiffened, she'd never imagined that the thing she was best at would be judged like that, and instantly her heart shattered in two like a piece of rough-surfaced porcelain thrown among the remnants.

Dante didn't scold Vergil, not even a frown, as if he'd been used to this before Daisy's arrival. Daisy heard him put down his fork and advised more mildly, "I know this isn't going to be easy for you, but Vergil, you have to keep trying, these are the food for us."

"Us?"

In the shape of a child, Vergil let out a sneer, and since then everything had gone in a direction Daisy couldn't understand.

"Who do you mean by 'us'? You and me? Or you and your human friends who can't even make a sound in the face of demons?"

"Vergil..." the gaze of Dante was noticed by Daisy, was he embarrassed? "Easy, there's a lot of complicated stuff you don't understand yet..."

Abruptly, Vergil laughed, like a child at a stupid joke. The laughter went on for a while, eventually ending in a lament, as Vergil lifted his chin with one hand and gazed at Dante like he was sympathetic, "Oh my Dante...do you only think of me as what you see now? A kid who shows up out of nowhere, behaves strangely, never obeys discipline, and treats women who want to fuck you difficult at every turn, and what else?"

Even a child shouldn't be so insolent, Daisy stepped in between them and said in a stern, elder tone, "Vergil, you can't - "

Daisy's words were interrupted by something flew by her cheek, and with the sound of an arrow lodged in the board, her hairband was cut and her hair scattered over her shoulders. As if she caught a wisp of blue shadow with her vision, slender and sharp, like a sword being thrown that didn't exist. She turned her head confusedly to look behind but met Vergil's eyes midway, and he put a finger to his lips to silence her.

It was a demon's heir. The rumors prevalent in the neighborhood were recalled by Daisy, people saying that the child named Vergil had inherited the demon's bloodline, had been born through Dante's body, had grown from an infant to the appearance of a child of six or seven in only a month, that he could not eat human food and could only prey on the entrails of animals...

Behind Dante, Daisy shrank up, her forehead against his solid back, not daring to make a sound. She had survived the demon's claws, and a phantom-like sword wasn't enough to frighten her, but something that Daisy couldn't see was stirring in this room as if she were in the dark.

Vergil dabbed a bit of sauce from his stew and sniffed in front of his nose, frowning in disgust. He wiped the stain off his hands with a tissue and said calmly to Dante, "Well, I'm just so hungry, I'm sorry."

The scent was gone and Daisy saw Dante's tense muscles slacken. With a faint, inaudible sigh, he went around to Vergil and got down on one knee, took his hand, and said, "I'm sorry I took it for granted. We can always find a solution, and no, even if you still end up...it's okay, I'll have food ready for you."

"Are you serious?"

"Of course," Dante said with a smile.

"Swear on our father's name."

Dante held up his hand, his expression solemn, "On the name of our father and mother, I swear I will never let my brother starve."

"I believe in you," Vergil cupped Dante's face and kissed him on the forehead, "Now make good on your promise."

"Daisy?"

Snapping out of that memory, Daisy is startled and gets a shiver, and beside her is Dante who is still waiting for an answer.

"Ah, sorry, something went down the wrong way." Daisy cackles, taking another sip of juice, "This year...I met my current lover, he's a very kind man who took me in when I was homeless. Oh yeah, and he has a sister who is very sweet and always pestering me to make her dessert..."

Dante abruptly cuts Daisy off, "Would you leave him?"

Reacting to the question like she is burning her tongue with that juice, the thumping of her heartbeat sounded like thunder to her, but she knew she has to give the real answer, "No, I don't think so."

"Why?" The devil hunter's eyes lose their warmth, "Didn't you just run away in the first place?"

For a moment, Daisy is speechless.

It was virtually instinct that had driven her to run away from the office in the first place, and what normal human beings would have remained where they were after seeing that scene? Even if there had been that must have been the fear that ruled the body, paralyzed and unable to move. In the dead of night Daisy always thought of the situation and she comforted herself with such words, but her guilt couldn't be filled.

After Vergil demanded Dante deliver on his promise, Daisy saw the blue blade once again. The sword that was supposed to be illusory pierced Dante's body and scarlet blood trickled down the blade, falling to the floor to pool.

How on earth... could you accept this? Daisy stared at the pool of blood spreading gradually, trembling with every breath she took. Until dinner, Daisy had only thought of Vergil as a weird little boy, but the boy was beyond it, stabbing through the body of his brother, perhaps the only one who loved him, with a sword that could not be explained by common sense.

Dante hung his head, off-balance against Vergil's thin shoulder, as Daisy vaguely heard him laugh, "So... is that all it takes?"

The sword embedded between the flesh and blood glassily shattered, then vanished into fine points of light. The hollow wound was instantly filled with blood, spilling out to soak Dante's clothes. Daisy forgot to cry out, unable to make a sound as if her throat was strangled, and she numbly eased her gaze upward from the wound, then saw the arms that encircled Dante's head.

"Are you going to stand there?" The boy looked at Daisy, said politely and regretfully, "Miss Daisy, there's no room for you."

Daisy covers her face with both hands, tears smudging her eye makeup and wetting her palms as she sobs, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry I ran away. I didn't even think to ask for help. I just wanted to run farther away...I...I was afraid of your brother..."

"What an unkind comment," the man says, "he's somehow noisy and deliberately antagonistic when he should behave himself, but isn't he cute most of the time? But to be fair, let's call it even."

The mug with half of the juice left is taken away and Daisy drops her hand to look at the white-haired man with red, puffy eyes, he smiles at her with that mug, "Because that's all I can say to you to this day, I don't like your cooking, it makes me sick just smelling it."

The door to the second-floor bedroom opens and a man with a bushy mass of white hair on his head walks out, topless, his unbuckled overalls hanging loosely around his waist. He yawns and walks down the steps to the man who is reading a book and jerks it away from him, their faces identical.

"Vergil, what was that noise?" The man who has yet to completely wake complains, pointing a finger at his abdomen, "I need to rest, you remember that, don't you?"

The man called Vergil raises his eyes, the hard ice in them melting away, he chuckles gently as he gets up and wraps his arms around the other man's waist and says, "Dante, it's nothing, just a drunk who mistook his house."

"Really?" Dante looks in the direction of the door, "you didn't chop someone up, right?"

"Why would I lie to you?"

Dante eyes him suspiciously in Vergil's embrace, but of course, he finds nothing, so he shrugs. "Whatever, just don't let anyone come to the door asking for medical bills in a couple of days."

"No one's hurt, no bills." Vergil clasps Dante's waist to sit him down on the well tidied up desk, "I assure you."

"Alright, alright. I trust you." Dante smiles and puts his arms around Vergil's shoulders.

In the dim, warm light, the two men with the same faces are kissing. The narrow incision across Dante's exposed abdomens is healing up.

-END-


End file.
